annyong!

early in september i took a trip to seoul, korea. the purpose was to get my working visa. i arrived in the early afternoon on a wednesday and immediately set out to find the japanese consulate to get the paperwork started. i honestly was lost! i didn't know where i was going and i stopped at a few of the tourist information booths but no one spoke enough english to help me. i was worried. but only a little bit. i started to wander in the direction that someone had suggested when i stopped on a corner to just look at and ponder each direction. then, for the first time since i had arrived in korea, a stranger approached and offered to help me. she said she didn't speak much english but that she would try. i told her i was trying to find the japanese consulate. she said, "i work there!" she was on her way there at that moment and so i walked with her. as we walked she asked me why i was going to the consulate and i told her. she quickly, and almost unintelligibly told me what i needed to do and where to go to get a photo. (no one told me before i left that i was supposed to have a photo!) after some more wandering, i got the pictures and made my way back to the consulate. she was sweet and expedited the paperwork while i waited so i would not have to come back the next day. so, by about 4pm on my first day in korea, i was through with my business and could relax.

i found a hotel...the president hotel. it was a pretty nice and i actually haggled with them to get almost 50% off, without even knowing it. i wish i had known ahead of time that i could do that, i would have started lower! i honestly thought when he asked me "how much are you looking to spend?" that he was wanting to have an idea of which direction to send me for a cheaper hotel. i guess with all my world travels, i still have some things to learn. haha.

this is what my room looked like. i am surprised that for such a fancy place, my bed was about as hard as a rock! but the room was nice over all.


while i was in korea, i had the chance to meet up with my big brother, josh. he is in the air force and is stationed there for a year. he arrived about a month after i came to japan. i was still in that homesick stage so it was great to see my brother and just be with family for a while. we spent the evening together and went out to eat at outback. then we went to the old palace that was across the square from my hotel. (i took only 1 picture of josh...i don't know what's wrong with me!!... and i don't include it here yet because i am having a problem formatting it for some reason. i will post it later.)

unfortunately, when we went to the palace, it was getting dark so the pictures didn't show up very well at all. this is one of the many buildings there...i guess its a pretty picture.


i wondered around the city the next day looking for cool places to see and to do some shopping. i was amazed by how big seoul is! i felt like the little country bumpkin finally seeing the big city. it was funny. there was a lot of traffic and for the most part there are not cross walks. if you want to cross the street, you have to go underground. that's cool, i guess. but i always got turned around while under the streets and inevitably came up at the wrong corner!


this is the view of the plaza from my hotel window. on the grass down below they had a rock concert my first night there. and when josh and i were out the next night we saw that they were showing a movie on this huge blow-up screen. it was, "some like it hot". the next night they were going to show "the wizard of oz" but i was going to be gone already. bummer.


i enjoyed my trip to korea because it was nice to see my brother and to finally get my visa paperwork taken care of. also, it was great just to see another country and culture. i think most of all, i am glad i went because it helped me to see that i can handle many things on my own. i think i always felt that i could never take a trip to a foreign country or even just an unknown part of my own country alone. now i know that i am perfectly able. that's a good feeling.